


Your name is John Egbert and your Dad is Dead

by throwntotheair (eloquentelegance)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-27
Updated: 2012-11-27
Packaged: 2017-11-19 17:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/575631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eloquentelegance/pseuds/throwntotheair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You were thirteen years old. It was your birthday. You and your friends played a game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your name is John Egbert and your Dad is Dead

Your name is John Egbert, and your Dad is dead.

You were thirteen years old. It was your birthday. You and your friends played a game.

Your name is John Egbert, and your Dad is…

Alive, you think, when you’re still drifting and dreaming. He’s in the kitchen and you’re in bed. He’s cooking and you’re sleeping. Any minute now, he’ll come up to your room and spray your face full of seltzer water. Just like he always does, just like he always will. And so you wait, and you squeeze your eyes, and you keep on thinking. Any minute now.

“Good mornin’, son.” He’ll say.

And you’ll be home. You’ll be safe.

But when you wake up, all you see is gold.

The morning after was the hardest. You forgot, completely and totally. You woke up and thought you missed your bus. You were going to be late for school. And geez, Dad! Why didn’t he wake you up? So you got up and stumbled down gilded halls with gilded floors. You washed your face in a golden sink and pissed in a golden toilet. You got as far as the kitchen.

“Daaaaaaad.” You moaned. “I’m going to be laaaaaaate.”

“Now son, you’re a man now. Men don’t need wake up calls.” He’d say.

Except he never did. There was only this strange girl. A strange girl where Dad should be. A very weird, very odd girl with flattened dog ears and drowning eyes. No, wait, that’s Jade, isn’t it? You forgot, didn’t you?

You got as far as the kitchen before you remembered.

Your name is John Egbert and your Dad…

He loved the Cosby Show. You used to watch it with him all the time. They aired it really late but your Dad would just wink at you. Just this once, he’d say. He’d say it every night. And then he’d lean back in his arm chair, light his pipe. When you were really little, you would crawl into his lap and rest your head on his shoulder. You forgot why you stopped. Maybe you got too big. Or maybe he got too little.

He’s gotten so little these days. You’re running out of him, you think. You’re running out of things to remember. And you’re scared. You’re so scared.

Your name is John Egbert and your Dad is…

He smoked his pipe everywhere. You once threw a fit over it. They taught you all about the dangers of nicotine at school. You came home bawling your eyes out. You thought your Dad was gonna die. Boy, you were a dumbass kid. But your Dad only patted you on the head. And he told you he’d never die. Not now, not ever. And you believed him! You really were such a dumbass.

He sure pulled one over you. His greatest prank to date.

You hate it. You hate him. You hate him so much -

It hurts.

Like a pie to the face. Like a sword through the chest. Like coming home.

Coming home was the hardest. You just left the game. And you were dead beat. Godtier powers sure don’t help your stamina, at all. You’ve been running on gushers and adrenaline for the last couple hours. You just wanna crawl into your bed and sleep. Sleep the sleep of gods. You’d fall flat on your face if you weren’t so sure a cake or a whoopie cushion was awaiting your landing. Nana just didn’t know when to quit.

So you begged Jade to shrink you, and you flew back to your house. And you know what, screw stamina. Flying will always be awesome.

Everything was great. You were tired but you were so happy. You were done. Finally, finally, finally. You were done for the day.

Then you opened that door.

Your name is John Egbert and your Dad…

Is everywhere. You could smell his cologne on the sofa. There were bits of tobacco on the carpet. A spare pipe sat beside the TV. Documents and tax papers were scattered on the coffee table. His hat hung on the rack. His entire closet exploded all over the living room. His jacket thrown over the railings. His shirts scattered all over the stairs. There was a shoe on the mantel! Several shoes!

And the first thing you thought.

You thought your Dad was going to kill you. Look at this mess! Those gosh-darned imps. Your Dad was going to skin you alive.

But then you remembered.

Your name is John Egbert and your Dad…

You think you collapsed. You don’t remember. But your sight got blurry, and you couldn’t see. And you couldn’t breathe. And you were crying, John, Jade said. Nanasprite found you by your doorway, she said. She held you tight. She told you everything was going to be okay, John. She’s right here, John. Shoosh, pap pap. But you don’t rememeber. You don’t remember any of it. Because…

Your name is John Egbert and your Dad is dead.


End file.
